History of Egypt
The history of spans the period from the early settlements of the northern valley to the in 30 BC. The pharaonic period, the period in which Egypt was ruled by a , is dated from the , when were unified, until the country fell under in 332 BC. Chronology ;Note: For alternative 'revisions' to the chronology of Egypt, see . Egypt's history is split into several different periods according to the ruling of each . The dating of events is still a subject of research. The conservative dates are not supported by any reliable absolute date for a span of about three millennia. The following is the list according to conventional Egyptian chronology. * (Prior to 3100 BC) * ("the protodynastic period"; approximately 3100–3000 BC-sometimes referred to as "Dynasty 0") * ( – Dynasties) * ( – Dynasties) * ( or – Dynasties) * ( – Dynasties) * ( – Dynasties) * ( – Dynasties) * (also known as the Libyan Period; – Dynasties) * ( – Dynasties) * (305-30 BC) Neolithic Egypt Neolithic period The has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along it during the . Traces of these early people appear in the form of artefacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. Along the Nile in the 12th millennium, an grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had replaced the culture of , , and s using s. Evidence also indicates human habitation and in the southwestern corner of Egypt near the border before the . Despite this, the idea of an independent bovine domestication event in must be abandoned because subsequent evidence gathered over a period of thirty years has failed to corroborate this. The oldest-known domesticated cattle remains in Africa are from the c. . Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies suggest that around the 8th millennium BC began to desiccate the extensive pastoral lands of , eventually forming the by the 25th century BC. Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and forced them to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. However, the period from to the has left very little in the way of archaeological evidence. Prehistoric Egypt vase decorated with s, on display at the .}} The Nile valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks was started. However it appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by the . By that time, Nile society was already engaged in organized agriculture and the construction of large buildings. At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. was in use by the . The people of the valley and the were self-sufficient and were raising and , an early variety of wheat, and stored it in pits lined with reed mats. They raised cattle, s and s and they wove and baskets. Prehistory continues through this time, variously held to begin with the . Between 5500 BC and the , small settlements flourished along the Nile, whose delta empties into the . The was the next to appear; it existed in Upper Egypt starting about 4500 BC. This group is named for the burials found at Deir Tasa, a site on the east bank of the Nile between and . The Tasian culture is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery painted black on its top and interior. The , named for the Badari site near Deir Tasa, followed the Tasian; however, similarities cause many to avoid differentiating between them at all. The Badari culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called blacktop-ware (although its quality was much improved over previous specimens), and was assigned the numbers between 21 and 29. The significant difference, however, between the Tasian and Badari, which prevents scholars from completely merging the two, is that Badari sites are while the Tasian sites remained and are thus considered technically part of the . on the , dated to the period circa 3300-3200 BC, , . , reference E 11517. This work of art both shows the at an early date, and the state of Mesopotamian royal iconography during the .}} The is named after the site of , about south of Badari. El-Amreh was the first site where this culture was found unmingled with the later Gerzeh culture. However, this period is better attested at , and so is also referred to as the "Naqada I" culture. Black-topped ware continued to be produced, but white cross-line ware, a type of pottery decorated with close parallel white lines crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, began to be produced during this time. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39. Newly excavated objects indicate that trade between Upper and Lower Egypt existed at this time. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amreh, and copper, which is not present in Egypt, was apparently imported from the or perhaps . and an extremely small amount of were both definitively imported from Nubia during this time. Trade with the oases was also likely. Naqada II The Gerzeh culture ("Naqada II"), named after the site of , was the next stage in cultural development, and it was during this time that the foundation for was laid. The Gerzeh culture was largely an unbroken development out of the Amratian, starting in the and moving south through ; however, it failed to dislodge the Amratian in . The Gerzeh culture coincided with a significant drop in rainfall and farming produced the vast majority of food. With increased food supplies, the populace adopted a much more sedentary lifestyle, and the larger settlements grew to cities of about 5000 residents. It was in this time that the city dwellers started using to build their cities. Copper instead of stone was increasingly used to make tools and weaponry. , , (imported from in what is now Afghanistan), and were used ornamentally, and the s used for eye paint since the Badari culture began to be adorned with s. By the , just before the , Egypt was divided into two kingdoms known from later times as to the south and to the north. The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern . Dynastic Egypt Early dynastic period Pharaoh , displaying the hieroglyph for his within a surmounted by . On display at the .}} The historical records of ancient Egypt begin with Egypt as a unified state, which occurred sometime around . According to Egyptian tradition, , thought to have unified Upper and Lower Egypt, was the first king. This Egyptian culture, customs, art expression, architecture, and social structure were closely tied to religion, remarkably stable, and changed little over a period of nearly 3000 years. , which involves s, began around this time. The conventional chronology was accepted during the twentieth century, but it does not include any of the major revision proposals that also have been made in that time. Even within a single work, archaeologists often offer several possible dates, or even several whole chronologies as possibilities. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between dates shown here and in articles on particular rulers or topics related to ancient Egypt. There also are several possible spellings of the names. Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization using a schedule laid out first by 's Aegyptiaca, which was written during the in the third century BC. Prior to the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypt's history thereafter, the country came to be known as the Two Lands. The s established a national administration and appointed royal governors. According to Manetho, the first pharaoh was , but archeological findings support the view that the first ruler to claim to have united the two lands was , the final king of the period. His name is known primarily from the famous , whose scenes have been interpreted as the act of uniting Upper and Lower Egypt. Menes is now thought to be one of the titles of , the second pharaoh of the . Funeral practices for the elite resulted in the construction of s, which later became models for subsequent Old Kingdom constructions such as the , thought to have originated during the . Old Kingdom statue of the pharaoh and his , . Originally from his Giza temple, now on display at the .}} The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as spanning the period of time when Egypt was ruled by the through to the (2686–2181 BCE). The royal capital of Egypt during this period was located at , where (2630–2611 BCE) established his court. The Old Kingdom is perhaps best known, however, for the large number of s, which were constructed at this time as pharaonic burial places. For this reason, this epoch is frequently referred to as "the Age of the Pyramids." The first notable pharaoh of the Old Kingdom was Djoser of the Third Dynasty, who ordered the construction of the first pyramid, the , in Memphis' necropolis of . It was in this era that formerly independent states became (districts) ruled solely by the pharaoh. Former local rulers were forced to assume the role of (governor) or work as s. Egyptians in this era worshiped the pharaoh as a god, believing that he ensured the annual flooding of the Nile that was necessary for their crops. The Old Kingdom and its royal power reached their zenith under the . , the dynasty's founder, is believed to have commissioned at least three pyramids; while his son and successor ( Cheops) erected the , Sneferu had more stone and brick moved than any other pharaoh. Khufu, his son (Greek Chephren), and his grandson (Greek Mycerinus) all achieved lasting fame in the construction of the . To organize and feed the manpower needed to create these pyramids required a centralized government with extensive powers, and Egyptologists believe the Old Kingdom at this time demonstrated this level of sophistication. Recent excavations near the pyramids led by have uncovered a large city that seems to have housed, fed and supplied the pyramid workers. Although it was once believed that slaves built these monuments, a theory based on narrative of the , study of the tombs of the workmen, who oversaw construction on the pyramids, has shown they were built by a of s drawn from across Egypt. They apparently worked while the annual flood covered their fields, as well as a very large crew of specialists, including stonecutters, painters, mathematicians and priests. The began with c. 2495 BC and was marked by the growing importance of the cult of the sun god . Consequently, less effort was devoted to the construction of pyramid complexes than during the Fourth Dynasty and more to the construction of sun temples in . The decoration of pyramid complexes grew more elaborate during the dynasty and its last king, , was the first to have the inscribed in his pyramid. Egypt's expanding interests in trade goods such as , incense such as and , gold, copper and other useful metals compelled the ancient Egyptians to navigate the open seas. Evidence from the , second king of the dynasty, shows that a regular trade existed with the Syrian coast to procure . Pharaohs also launched expeditions to the famed , possibly the , for ebony, ivory and aromatic resins. During the (2345–2181 BCE), the power of pharaohs gradually weakened in favor of powerful s. These no longer belonged to the royal family and their charge became hereditary, thus creating local dynasties largely independent from the central authority of the pharaoh. Internal disorders set in during the incredibly long reign of (2278–2184 BCE) towards the end of the dynasty. His death, certainly well past that of his intended heirs, might have created succession struggles and the country slipped into civil wars mere decades after the close of Pepi II's reign. The final blow came when the struck the region in the 22nd century BC, producing consistently low Nile flood levels. The result was the collapse of the Old Kingdom followed by decades of famine and strife. First Intermediate Period .}} After the fall of the Old Kingdom came a roughly 200-year stretch of time known as the First Intermediate Period, which is generally thought to include a relatively obscure set of pharaohs running from the end of the to the and most of the Dynasties. Most of these were likely local monarchs who did not hold much power outside of their nome. There are a number of texts known as "Lamentations" from the early period of the subsequent that may shed some light on what happened during this period. Some of these texts reflect on the breakdown of rule, others allude to invasion by "Asiatic bowmen". In general the stories focus on a society where the natural order of things in both society and nature was overthrown. It is also highly likely that it was during this period that all of the pyramid and tomb complexes were looted. Further lamentation texts allude to this fact, and by the beginning of the Middle Kingdom are found decorated with magical spells that were once exclusive to the pyramid of the kings of the Sixth Dynasty. By 2160 BC, a new line of pharaohs, the and Dynasties, consolidated from their capital in . A rival line, the based at , reunited , and a clash between the rival dynasties was inevitable. Around , the Theban forces defeated the Heracleopolitan pharaohs and reunited the Two Lands. The reign of its first pharaoh, , marks the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. Middle Kingdom statue of Mentuhotep II, the founder of the Middle Kingdom}} The Middle Kingdom is the period in the history of stretching from the 39th regnal year of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the , roughly between 2030 and 1650 BC. The period comprises two phases, the Eleventh Dynasty, which ruled from Thebes, and then the , whose capital was . These two dynasties were originally considered the full extent of this unified kingdom, but some historians now consider the first part of the to belong to the Middle Kingdom. The earliest pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom traced their origin to two nomarchs of Thebes, , who served a Heracleopolitan pharaoh of the Tenth Dynasty, and his successor, Mentuhotep I. The successor of the latter, , was the first Theban nomarch to claim a Horus name and thus the throne of Egypt. He is considered the first pharaoh of the Eleventh Dynasty. His claims brought the Thebans into conflict with the rulers of the Tenth Dynasty. Intef I and his brother undertook several campaigns northwards and finally captured the important nome of . Warfare continued intermittently between the Thebean and Heracleapolitan dynasties until the 39th of Mentuhotep II, second successor of Intef II. At this point, the Herakleopolitans were defeated and the Theban dynasty consolidated their rule over Egypt. Mentuhotep II is known to have commanded military campaigns south into Nubia, which had gained its independence during the First Intermediate Period. There is also evidence for military actions against the . The king reorganized the country and placed a at the head of civil administration for the country. Mentuhotep II was succeeded by his son, , who organized an expedition to Punt. His reign saw the realization of some of the finest Egyptian carvings. Mentuhotep III was succeeded by , the final pharaoh of this dynasty. Despite being absent from various lists of pharaohs, his reign is attested from a few inscriptions in that record expeditions to the coast and to quarry stone for the royal monuments. The leader of this expedition was his vizier Amenemhat, who is widely assumed to be the future Pharaoh , the first pharaoh of the . Amenemhat is therefore assumed by some Egyptologists to have either usurped the throne or assumed power after Mentuhotep IV died childless. Amenemhat I built a new capital for Egypt, , thought to be located near the present-day Lisht, although Manetho claims the capital remained at Thebes. Amenemhat forcibly pacified internal unrest, curtailed the rights of the nomarchs, and is known to have launched at least one campaign into Nubia. His son continued the policy of his father to recapture Nubia and other territories lost during the First Intermediate Period. The were subdued under his forty-five year reign and Egypt's prosperity and security were secured. (1878–1839 BC) was a warrior king, leading his troops deep into Nubia, and built a series of massive forts throughout the country to establish Egypt's formal boundaries with the unconquered areas of its territory. (1860–1815 BC) is considered the last great pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom. Egypt's population began to exceed food production levels during the reign of Amenemhat III, who then ordered the exploitation of the Faiyum and increased mining operations in the . He also invited settlers from to Egypt to labor on Egypt's monuments. Late in his reign, the annual floods along the Nile began to fail, further straining the resources of the government. The and witnessed the slow decline of Egypt into the , in which some of the settlers invited by Amenemhat III would seize power as the . Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos , a minor pharaoh of the , reigning over the Theban region c. .}} The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Egypt once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the . This period is best known as the time the made their appearance in Egypt, the reigns of its kings comprising the . The Thirteenth Dynasty proved unable to hold onto the long land of Egypt, and a provincial family of Levantine descent located in the marshes of the eastern Delta at broke away from the central authority to form the . The splintering of the land most likely happened shortly after the reigns of the powerful Pharaohs and c. 1720 BC. While the Fourteenth Dynasty was Levantine, the Hyksos first appeared in Egypt c. 1650 BC when they took control of Avaris and rapidly moved south to , thereby ending the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties. The outlines of the traditional account of the "invasion" of the land by the Hyksos is preserved in the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, who records that during this time the Hyksos overran Egypt, led by , the founder of the Fifteenth Dynasty. More recently, however, the idea of a simple migration, with little or no violence involved, has gained some support. Under this theory, the Egyptian rulers of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties were unable to stop these new migrants from traveling to Egypt from the Levant because their kingdoms were struggling to cope with various domestic problems, including possibly famine and plague. Be it military or peaceful, the weakened state of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasty kingdoms could explain why they rapidly fell to the emerging Hyksos power. The Hyksos princes and chieftains ruled in the eastern Delta with their local Egyptian vassals. The Fifteenth Dynasty rulers established their capital and seat of government at Memphis and their summer residence at Avaris. The Hyksos kingdom was centered in the eastern and central Egypt but relentlessly pushed south for the control of central and Upper Egypt. Around the time Memphis fell to the Hyksos, the native Egyptian ruling house in Thebes declared its independence and set itself up as the . Another short lived dynasty might have done the same in central Egypt, profiting from the power vacuum created by the fall of the 13th dynasty and forming the . By 1600 BC, the Hyksos had successfully moved south in central Egypt, eliminating the Abydos Dynasty and directly threatening the Sixteenth Dynasty. The latter was to prove unable to resist and Thebes fell to the Hyksos for a very short period c. 1580 BC. The Hyksos rapidly withdrew to the north and Thebes regained some independence under the . From then on, Hyksos relations with the south seem to have been mainly of a commercial nature, although Theban princes appear to have recognized the Hyksos rulers and may possibly have provided them with for a period. The Seventeenth Dynasty was to prove the salvation of Egypt and would eventually lead the war of liberation that drove the Hyksos back into Asia. The two last kings of this dynasty were and . completed the conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos from the Nile Delta, restored Theban rule over the whole of Egypt and successfully reasserted Egyptian power in its formerly subject territories of and the Southern Levant. His reign marks this beginning of the and the . New Kingdom Possibly as a result of the foreign rule of the during the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom saw Egypt attempt to create a buffer between the Levant and Egypt, and attain its greatest territorial extent. It expanded far south into and held wide territories in the . Egyptian armies fought armies for control of modern-day . Eighteenth Dynasty }} This was a time of great wealth and power for Egypt. Some of the most important and best-known pharaohs ruled at this time, such as . Hatshepsut is unusual as she was a female pharaoh, a rare occurrence in Egyptian history. She was an ambitious and competent leader, extending Egyptian trade south into present-day and north into the Mediterranean. She ruled for twenty years through a combination of widespread propaganda and deft political skill. Her co-regent and successor ("the of Egypt") expanded Egypt's army and wielded it with great success. However, late in his reign, he ordered her name hacked out from her monuments. He fought against Asiatic people and was the most successful of Egyptian pharaohs. built extensively at the temple of including the , which consisted of two , a colonnade behind the new temple entrance, and a new temple to the goddess . During the reign of Thutmose III (c. 1479–1425 BC), , originally referring to the king's palace, became a form of address for the person who was king. One of the best-known 18th Dynasty pharaohs is Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to in honor of the god . His exclusive worship of the Aten, sometimes called , is often seen as history's first instance of monotheism. Atenism and several changes that accompanied it seriously disrupted Egyptian society. Akhenaten built a new capital at the site of , which gives his reign and the few that followed their modern name, the . diverged significantly from the previous conventions of . Under a series of successors, of whom the longest reigning were and . Under them, worship of the old gods was revived and much of the art and monuments that were created during Akhenaten's reign was defaced or destroyed. When Horemheb died without an heir, he named as his successor , founder of the . Nineteenth Dynasty at one of the .}} Ramesses I reigned for two years and was succeeded by his son . Seti I carried on the work of in restoring power, control, and respect to Egypt. He also was responsible for creating the temple complex at Abydos. Arguably Ancient Egypt's power as a nation-state peaked during the reign of ("the Great") of the . He reigned for 67 years from the age of 18 and carried on his father Seti I's work and created many more splendid temples, such as that of on the Nubian border. He sought to recover territories in the Levant that had been held by the Eighteenth Dynasty. His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the in , where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king and was caught in history's first recorded military ambush. Ramesses II was famed for the huge number of children he sired by his various wives and ; the he built for his sons (many of whom he outlived) in the has proven to be the largest funerary complex in Egypt. His immediate successors continued the military campaigns, though an increasingly troubled court complicated matters. Ramesses II was succeeded by his son and then by Merenptah's son . Seti II's throne seems to have been disputed by his half-brother , who may have temporarily ruled from Thebes. Upon his death, Seti II's son , who may have been afflicted with during his life, was appointed to the throne by , a West Asian commoner who served as vizier behind the scenes. At Siptah's early death, the throne was assumed by , the of Seti II and possibly Amenmesse's sister. A period of anarchy at the end of Twosret's short reign saw a native reaction to foreign control leading to the execution of Bay and the enthronement of , establishing the . Twentieth Dynasty The last "great" pharaoh from the New Kingdom is widely considered , the son of Setnakhte who reigned three decades after the time of (c.1279–1213 BC). In Year 8 of his reign, the invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles. He claimed that he incorporated them as subject people and settled them in Southern Canaan, although there is evidence that they forced their way into Canaan. Their presence in Canaan may have contributed to the formation of new states in this region such as Philistia after the collapse of the Egyptian Empire. He was also compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two major campaigns in Egypt's Western Delta in his Year 6 and Year 11 respectively. The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia. The severity of these difficulties is stressed by the fact that the first known in recorded history occurred during Year 29 of Ramesses III's reign, when the food rations for the Egypt's favoured and elite royal tomb-builders and artisans in the village of could not be provisioned. Something in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground and also arrested global tree growth for almost two full decades until 1140 BC. One proposed cause is the in , but the dating of that event remains in dispute. Following Ramesses III's death there was endless bickering between his heirs. Three of his sons would go on to assume power as , and , respectively. However, at this time Egypt was also increasingly beset by a series of droughts, below-normal flooding levels of the Nile, famine, civil unrest and official corruption. The power of the last pharaoh, , grew so weak that in the south the became the effective de facto rulers of Upper Egypt, while controlled Lower Egypt even before Ramesses XI's death. Smendes would eventually found the at . Third Intermediate Period .}} After the death of , his successor ruled from the city of in the north, while the had effective rule of the south of the country, whilst still nominally recognizing Smendes as king. In fact, this division was less significant than it seems, since both priests and pharaohs came from the same family. , assumed control of Upper Egypt, ruling from , with the northern limit of his control ending at . (The High Priest had died before Ramesses XI, but also was an all-but-independent ruler in the latter days of the king's reign.) The country was once again split into two parts with the priests in Thebes and the pharaohs at Tanis. Their reign seems without other distinction, and they were replaced without any apparent struggle by the Libyan kings of the . Egypt has long had ties with , and the first king of the new dynasty, , was a Libyan, who served as the commander of the armies under the last ruler of the Twenty-First Dynasty, . He unified the country, putting control of the Amun under his own son as the High Priest of Amun, a post that was previously a hereditary appointment. The scant and patchy nature of the written records from this period suggest that it was unsettled. There appear to have been many subversive groups, which eventually led to the creation of the , which ran concurrent with the latter part of the Twenty-Second Dynasty. The country was reunited by the Twenty-Second Dynasty founded by in 945 BC (or 943 BC), who descended from immigrants, originally from . This brought stability to the country for well over a century. After the reign of the country had again splintered into two states with of the Twenty-Second Dynasty controlling Lower Egypt by 818 BC while and his son (the future ) ruled Middle and Upper Egypt. After the withdrawal of Egypt from at the end of the New Kingdom, a native dynasty took control of Nubia. Under king , the Nubian founder of , the Nubians pushed north in an effort to crush his Libyan opponents ruling in the Delta. Piye managed to attain power as far as . His opponent ultimately submitted to him, but he was allowed to remain in power in Lower Egypt and founded the short-lived at . The kingdom to the south took full advantage of this division and political instability and defeated the combined might of several native-Egyptian rulers such as , of Tanis, and of Sais. Piye was succeeded first by his brother, , and then by his two sons and . reunited the "Two lands" of Northern and Southern Egypt and created an empire that was as large as it had been since the . Pharaohs such as Taharqa built or restored temples and monuments throughout the Nile valley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, and Jebel Barkal. It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of since the Middle Kingdom. The international prestige of Egypt declined considerably by this time. The country's international allies had fallen under the sphere of influence of and from about 700 BC the question became when, not if, there would be war between the two states. 's reign and that of his successor, , were filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians against whom there were numerous victories, but ultimately Thebes was occupied and sacked. Late Period From 671 BC on, Memphis and the Delta region became the target of many attacks from the ns, who expelled the Nubians and handed over power to client kings of the . was the first recognized as the king of the whole of Egypt, and he brought increased stability to the country during a 54-year reign from the new capital of . Four successive Saite kings continued guiding Egypt successfully and peacefully from 610–526 BC, keeping the ns in certain measures away with the help of mercenaries. However, during this period Babylonian emperor (605–562 BC) campaigned against the Egyptians and drove them back over the Sinai. In 567 BC he went to war with Pharaoh , and briefly invaded itself. By the end of this period a new power was growing in the Near East: . The Pharaoh had to face the might of Persia at ; he was defeated and briefly escaped to Memphis, but ultimately was captured and then executed. Persian domination tomb relief.}} Achaemenid Egypt can be divided into three eras: the first period of occupation when Egypt became a y, followed by an interval of independence, and the second and final period of occupation. The Persian king assumed the formal title of Pharaoh, called himself Mesuti-Re ("Re has given birth"), and sacrificed to the Egyptian gods. He founded the . was then joined with and in the sixth y of the . Cambyses' successors and pursued a similar policy, visited the country, and warded off an attack. It is likely that and visited the country as well, although it is not attested, and did not prevent the Egyptians from feeling unhappy. During the war of succession after the reign of Darius II, which broke out in 404 BC, they revolted under and regained their independence. This sole ruler of the died in 399, and power went to the . The was established in 380 BC and lasted until 343 BC. was the last native king to rule Egypt. (358–338 BC) reconquered the Nile valley for a brief period (343–332 BC). In 332 BC Mazaces handed over the country to without a fight. The Achaemenid empire had ended, and for a while Egypt was a satrapy in Alexander's empire. Later the and then the successively ruled the Nile valley. Ptolemaic dynasty In 332 BC of conquered Egypt with little resistance from the . He was welcomed by the as a deliverer. He visited , and went on a pilgrimage to the oracle of at the . The oracle declared him the son of . He conciliated the Egyptians by the respect he showed for their religion, but he appointed Greeks to virtually all the senior posts in the country, and founded a new Greek city, , to be the new capital. The wealth of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexander's conquest of the rest of the . Early in 331 BC he led his forces away to Phoenicia, never returning to Egypt. Philometor as Pharao (3rd–2nd century BCE). .}} Following Alexander's death in in 323 BC, a erupted among his generals. ruled the empire as regent for Alexander's half-brother , who became , and Alexander's infant son . Perdiccas appointed , one of Alexander's closest companions, to rule Egypt in the name of the joint kings. However, as Alexander's empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as ruler in his own right. Ptolemy successfully defended Egypt against an invasion by Perdiccas in 321 BC and consolidated his position in Egypt and the surrounding areas during the (322–301 BC). In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of Pharaoh. As ("Saviour"), he founded the that was to rule Egypt for nearly 300 years. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. Hellenistic culture thrived in Egypt well after the . The Egyptians soon accepted the Ptolemies as the successors to the pharaohs of independent Egypt. Ptolemy's family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy. Ptolemaic queens regnant, some of whom were the sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopatra, Arsinoe or Berenice. The most famous member of the line was the last queen, , known for her role in the Roman political battles between and , and later between and . Her apparent suicide at the marked the end of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt. References Category:Empires